


Sun, Sand, and Scratches

by poeticname



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Established Relationship, Fluffy Ending, Future Fic, M/M, Mild Blood
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-14
Updated: 2013-12-14
Packaged: 2018-01-04 15:43:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,305
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1082809
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/poeticname/pseuds/poeticname
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The end of a day at the beach.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sun, Sand, and Scratches

"This is why we shouldn't have left my lucky item in the car."

Takao laughs, of course that's the first thing Midorima would say when examining his boyfriend's bleeding foot, but the laugh is shakey since he's wincing in pain.

Midorima's frown becomes even more pronounced, "There is fortunately no glass that got stuck in your foot, but there is sand in the cuts that needs to be washed out."

Takao hasn't seen the bottom of his foot himself, but the mental image of sand in his cuts grosses him out thoroughly. "Please do that."

They've assembled a crowd around them, blood attracts a lot of attention in a place as usually peaceful as a public beach, and Midorima stands up to look over them.

"You there," he points to the nearest person, a rather short man, "fetch some fresh water and some soap."

Midorima whirls around to another member of the crowd, a young woman, "You find me a first aid kit."

Neither of them dispute the orders, and as they leave, Midorima kneels to inspect Takao's foot again. Takao keeps up a steady string of "owowowowow", closing his eyes as tight as he can.

There is a moment they spend like this, where Midorima has none of the materials he needs and Takao is mentally cursing his lack of attention to the ground, and then the man Midorima sent off returns with a bucket of soapy water.

He sets it down beside Midorima, and Midorima gets to work quickly, picking up the bucket and pouring it over Takao's foot.

"Ooooooh my god," that feels better already, Takao thinks. Then Midorima does it again, then a third time, and Takao's sure that he's still bleeding, it does still hurt, but damn if that isn't better.

"There's no more sand," Midorima announces, just as the woman he sent off comes back with a first aid kit. He opens it with one hand, still holding Takao's foot off the ground with the other. "I apologize, but I'll have to let go of your foot for a few seconds in order to bandage it."

"That's fine. I can hold my leg up for five seconds Shin-chan, go ahead."

Midorima trusts him and lets go, rooting through the first aid kid for only a few seconds until he finds some gauze. He wraps it around Takao's foot tightly and quickly, with that odd precision only Midorima has.

That feels infinitely better. Still painful, probably still bleeding, but so much better.

"Shin-chan," Takao stops clenching his eyelids tightly, slowly opening them to peer down at Midorima, "I am so glad you know these things."

Midorima looks through the first aid kit solemnly, not smug as he usually is when Takao compliments him, "Shut up for a moment Takao. That is only to stop the bleeding for now. I'll need to remove it in a moment to apply some antibiotic ointment, and then I can bandage your foot more permanently."

Takao shuts up, still basking in the reprieve from extreme pain as Midorima continues to work. 

As the immediate stimulus of blood disappears, their audience starts to wander off to more cheerful parts of the beach.

\---

By the time Midorima is done with the bandages, all the spectators have left, deeming themselves unneeded once they were sure Midorima knew what he was doing.

This leaves Midorima and Takao for the most part alone, with Takao sitting on somebody else's abandonned beach chair and Midorima sitting on the sand beside him while they watch the other beachgoers run around.

Takao has been taking deep breaths for a while now, turns out it's damn hard to fully calm down after stepping on glass, and Midorima has been glaring ahead.

"I suppose I should return this first aid kit to whomever it belongs to."

Takao breathes out, "That might be a good idea."

Midorima doesn't move to do it.

"Weren't you going to-"

Midorima stands up, "I'll be going now. Stay here and do not put any weight on your foot."

"Got it," Takao responds.

Midorima starts to walk away. Takao looks over his shoulder to watch him go.

His walk is stiff and his grip is tight around the first aid kit.

Takao gets uncomfortable craning his neck so much and sits back down, looking up at the sky.

"He's totally brooding, huh?"

The sun seems to agree with him.

\---

"When's Shin-chan going to get back?" Takao complains to the sun, his newest companion. "I'm starting to feel like a baked potato over here."

"I was only a few minutes, Takao."

Takao looks over his shoulder, and there is Midorima in all his glory, no first aid kit in hand.

It seems he did more than just return it though. He's wearing shoes as opposed to sandals now, and he's carrying some shoes too. Takao's shoes.

"You went back to the lockers, too? No wonder it took you so long. Did you get our other stuff?"

"I put it back in the car."

"I don't believe you."

Midorima glares, "What does that mean?"

"If you went back to the car you would've brought your lucky item with you," Takao scoffs. Midorima's gotten better with the whole lucky item thing since high school, but not good enough to ditch it when there are no immediate consequences.

"It would be in the way." 

"Of what?"

Midorima tosses Takao's shoes by his feet as he walks in front of him. "Put one of those on the uninjured foot and carry the other one."

"Wouldn't it have been easier to leave one of these in the car?"

"That didn't occur to me at the time."

Takao sighs, but he smiles to himself as he does what Midorima instructed.

When Takao looks up from tying his one shoe, he finds himself looking up at Midorima. His head blocks the sun. Takao is on the verge of making a joke about how there is light radiating from behind him like a true angel should have, but now that they're face-to-face Takao can see that Midorima's frown is more deep-set than usual.

He's still brooding about the injury.

"Hey, Shin-chan-"

Midorima turns around.

"I'm going to carry you."

"What?"

"I _said_ I'm going to carry you. On my back, to the car, because you shouldn't be putting weight on your foot at the moment."

Midorima kneels to the ground, and Takao realizes he's supposed to climb on.

It's hard, getting out of a beach chair with one leg, but Takao manages, and practically falls onto Midorima's back, earning him a soft "oof".

"I'm ready when you are, Shin-chan," he says, winding his arms around Midorima's chest as best he can while he's carrying a shoe in one hand.

Midorima grabs Takao's legs wordlessly and stands up, grunting only a little as he starts to make his way to the parking lot.

"So," Takao starts as he relaxes on Midorima's back, "this is why the lucky item would be in the way?"

"Yes."

Today's lucky item is a rather heavy jewelery box, which is why they left it in the car in the first place. Takao is very glad that Midorima didn't make him carry it.

"Have there been any changes to your foot?"

"Nope," Takao rests his chin on Midorima's shoulder. "You did a good job."

Midorima doesn't respond. Takao leans their heads together.

"Sorry for making you worry."

Midorima is still silent.

"Come on Shin-chan, stop moping and talk to me."

"I'm not moping," Midorima retorts immediately.

"Yes you are." 

"No I'm not."

"I've been complimenting you and you haven't been adjusting your glasses smugly, something is definitely up."

"Takao," Midorima is gritting his teeth now. "My hands have been busy with other things ever since your injury occurred."

"Good point."

There's a lull in the conversation. Midorima takes a few more steps.

"Anyways, aside from the glasses, you've been tense in general," Takao elaborates, moving his head so he can talk directly to Midorima's ear. "I was being honest when I said you did a good job. Don't worry so much."

Midorima stops walking for a second. Takao pulls back his head, bracing himself for god-knows-what.

"I can't stop myself from being concerned, Takao. I care about you a good deal. Though I got it under control, seeing that much blood coming from you was alarming."

"Sorry," Takao tightens his hold around Midorima's chest. "I promise I'll be more careful about where I step with no shoes on."

He kisses Midorima's ear, because it's closest.

Midorima doesn't respond immediately.

"You better," he eventually mutters.

Takao grins, this is sounding a bit more like regular Midorima. He's probably safely back in joke territory. 

"I, Takao Kazunari, solemnly swear that I will cast a hawk's eye over the ground before taking a single step when barefoot."

"Satisfactory."

Takao laughs and kisses Midorima's neck this time.

"Takao! We're in public!" Midorima scolds, his ears turning red as he starts walking much quicker than before.

"You didn't complain when it was your ear."

"My ear is a significantly less intimate area than my neck."

"Oh, really?"

Takao takes a moment to lick slowly behind Midorima's ear, tasting the sweat there, and he can feel Midorima go rigid beneath him as he walks.

" _Takao_."

"See, ear is not that much less intimate than neck."

"I am going to drop you before we get to the car."

"And undo all your hard work? Wow, Shin-chan, that's not very much like you."

Midorima "hmph"s.

Takao laughs.

They arrive at their destination then, their small but nice bright red car. It's technically Midorima's, it was a gift from his parents, but since they live together it's practically Takao's too.

Midorima bends down without a word, and Takao hesitantly tests the ground with his good foot, still clinging to Midorima as he does.

"Can you move to the side a bit so I can lean against the car?"

Midorima does so, and Takao lets go, balancing on one foot for a second, then falling over a bit and letting out an "oof" as he hits the side of the car.

Midorima spins around to face him, "Are you balanced?"

"Somewhat," Takao says, gritting his teeth and pressing the shoe he's still carrying against the side of the car.

Midorima frowns, and after a moment he opens the car door, "Here you go."

He continues to stand beside the door while Takao hobbles over, "You're such a gentleman Shin-chan."

Midorima adjusts his glasses as if to say "of course", and when Takao finally hops enough times, he collapses onto the passenger seat with a sigh of relief, dropping his unused shoe into the foot space and letting his feet dangle out the side.

"That was an ordeal."

"It was an even worse ordeal watching you."

The words are condescending, but the tone is not, and Midorima has that same deep frown from before.

Takao figures he'll be seeing it often for the next little while.

"Hey Shin-chan."

"What?"

"I wish I could pat your head right now. I think you're well overdue for a good hair ruffle."

Midorima snorts, definite condescension that time, "Maybe if you were a little taller that wouldn't be the case."

"Dude, I'm the problem? You're a giant, in case you haven't noticed."

They've bickered about this countless times before, so Midorima recognizes it as going nowhere and sighs, "I'm going to close the door soon. I'd prefer if I didn't re-injure your foot in the process."

Takao groans, "But there's practically no leg room in here. Let my poor injured foot get some air while it can."

Midorima's eyebrow twitches, "Your poor injured foot can go up on the dashboard if its going to be so troubled by our car's actual leg space."

Takao is starting to prepare a retort, but then he blinks.

"Wait, you're giving me permission to-"

"Just this once. You should keep your foot elevated to help prevent further bleeding."

Takao's glee is unholy as he spins around to put both his feet up on the dashboard. Midorima glares down at him as he closes the door.

Takao hums to himself happily. He's been trying to wear Midorima down about the "no feet on the dashboard" thing ever since Midorima learned how to drive.

Meanwhile, Midorima walks around to let himself into the driver's seat. 

He gives Takao a despairing look for his continued happiness as he turns the car on.

Takao looks at him from the corner of his eye, still smiling, "What?"

"You make a mental recovery from injury remarkably quickly, that's all."

"Only 'cause you're here. Thanks for the first aid and the support."

Midorima stares very intently at the steering wheel, his face flushing in a way Takao knows is not from the heat.

"Let's go home," he says, practically muttering.

"I'll cook, to make up for the whole "cutting our day at the beach short" thing."

"You're not cooking, you shouldn't be walking around a kitchen in your current state." Midorima has recovered his usual disapproving tone.

"Then I'll order in."

Midorima considers it, "That sounds alright."

"My ideas _are_ pretty awesome."

"I do enjoy your ideas on occasion."

Takao fully turns to face him now, "Yeah?"

Midorima nods, "Prior to your injury, I was somewhat enjoying myself here."

"Yeah, sorry about that," Takao has already said this, but it bears repeating. "Glad you liked the beach though."

Midorima starts the car and pulls out of their spot silently. Takao sinks into his seat, mentally resigning himself to the impending long drive.

"Perhaps next time we could go to a more well-maintained beach where there will be no glass to step on."

Takao looks up at Midorima from his low position on the seat and smiles.

"You have good ideas too, Shin-chan."


End file.
